9314847 Blitz The Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array (BIMA) is a millimeter-wave interferometer presently made up of 6 six-meter diameter antennas; expansion to at least 9 antennas is planned during the next few years. Located at Berkeley's Hat Creek Radio Observatory, BIMA was jointly capitalized and is jointly operated by the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois and the University of Maryland through a combination of NSF and State funding. These awards are for identical proposals submitted simultaneously by each institution, and support astronomical research, technological development and student training carried out at the BIMA array. Astronomical research at BIMA includes high resolution studies of solar system objects, stellar envelopes, star-forming regions in the Galaxy, and molecular clouds in external galaxies. Notable accomplishments during the past three years at BIMA include expansion to 6 elements, the development of a novel high- reliability 4K closed cycle refrigerator stage, the detection of bands in the Jovian atmosphere at millimeter wavelengths, and infall onto star forming cores. During the next grant period observations will continue, the array will be expanded to a total of at least 9 elements, and the array baselines will be extended to at least 750 meters, providing angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds at a wavelength of 1.3mm.
